The Mark of Cain

The Telegraph reports Naughty children to be registered as potential criminals. Well, of course. What else would we expect in the free country that is Britain. Where once quiet words within communities would enable local people to keep a watch out for potential troublemakers, now we brand them with a virtual iron.

The thing is, my mother was a primary school teacher for 30 years in one of the most deprived areas of the country (South Shields). She would regularly open the pages of the local paper and exclaim something along the lines of, "Oh, Johnny Smith's been put away for murder! He was such a lovely little boy..." Past record is not necessarily a predictor of future performance, especially when you're dealing with the young.

A final thought. How odd that, in the race to be non-judgmental over teaching children the difference between right and wrong, we have turned to a system that institutionalises another, more telling, form of prejudice.